Catheter ablation is commonly employed to treat atrial fibrillation, where errant electrical conductivity pathways in a patient's heart are burned or ablated with the tip of an ablation catheter that is positioned within the patient's atrium during a cardiac ablation surgical procedure. A significant risk in such a procedure is burning or ablating through a wall of the patient's atrium and then into the patient's esophagus, or otherwise damaging or overheating esophageal tissue. Indeed, burning or ablating the patient's esophagus can result in near-immediate death. See, for example, “Damage to the Esophagus After Atrial Fibrillation Ablation—Just the Tip of the Iceberg? High Prevalence of Mediastinal Changes Diagnosed by Endosonography” to Zellerhoff et al., Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology. 2010; 3:155-159, Apr. 20, 2010. Zellerhoff et al. describe structural changes in the mediastinum resulting from PV isolation and ablation, which were only visible by endosonography, and which occurred in 27% of the patients studied.
Mechanical esophageal displacement of the esophagus away from the heart during a cardiac ablation surgical procedure is therefore highly desirable so that in the event a patient's atrial wall is penetrated during the procedure the esophagus will not be burned or ablated. See “Mechanical Esophageal Displacement during Catheter Ablation for Atrial Fibrillation” by Koruth et al. Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology, Vol. 23, No. 2, February, 2012.
Various devices and methods have been proposed to displace or reposition a patient's esophagus during atrial ablation surgical procedures, many of which suffer from various shortcomings.
What is needed is an esophageal displacement or re-positioning device that is relatively quick and easy to use, and that is capable of reliably re-positioning a patient's esophagus a safe distance away from the patient's heart during a cardiac ablation surgical procedure.